Evaluation of the Food and Agriculture Organization's global school-based nutrition education initiative, Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger (FMFH), in schools of Hyderabad, India

Abstract

Objective: To assess the efficacy of the Food and Agriculture Organization's global school-based nutrition education initiative, Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger (FMFH), in improving nutrition-related knowledge levels of schoolchildren. Design: Adopting the cluster randomisation technique, five schools each in experimental and control groups were randomly chosen from the member schools of a voluntary organisation. Repeated measures of knowledge levels were carried out at three points in time to assess pre-, post-intervention and retention of knowledge gained during the intervention. Children from experimental schools were given nutrition education by teachers in the classroom setting using FMFH material. Subjects/settings: Schoolchildren (n ¼ 358 in the control group and n ¼ 312 in the experimental group) of grades VIII and IX from schools in Hyderabad, India. Results: The classroom-based intervention resulted in a significant improvement (P , 0.01) in nutrition knowledge levels of schoolchildren in the experimental group. Significant improvement in knowledge was also observed in the control group. The effect size indicated that the improvement in knowledge levels of schoolchildren in experimental schools over control schools was medium (d ¼ 0.40), indicating the efficacy of the FMFH programme in improving nutrition-related knowledge. No significant decrease (P . 0.05) in knowledge levels was observed after 2 months, indicating retention of the knowledge acquired through the intervention. Conclusion: The FMFH programme provides an opportunity for schoolchildren to learn more about nutrition through their teachers in a classroom setting if the lesson plans are adapted to the local circumstances. Furthermore, it has the potential to make nutrition education interactive, effective and sustainable.

The effects of a school-based intervention programme on dietary intakes and physical activity among primary-school children in Trinidad and Tobago

“…Our intervention was quite successful in improving the children’s knowledge and awareness on issues related to nutrition and physical activity. This is consistent with the findings of other studies and suggests that our intervention may be applicable to our entire primary-school population ( 21 , 33 , 34 ) . The fact that schools in the study region are in the lower percentiles of the standard school assessment examinations conducted by the Ministry of Education of Trinidad and Tobago, suggests that this intervention can significantly improve knowledge among students in the better performing percentiles.…”

“…The fact that schools in the study region are in the lower percentiles of the standard school assessment examinations conducted by the Ministry of Education of Trinidad and Tobago, suggests that this intervention can significantly improve knowledge among students in the better performing percentiles. The limited contact hours with participants suggests that even short exposure in a well-designed and culturally relevant school-based intervention can result in significant increases in knowledge and awareness among children in a cost-effective manner ( 34 ) . Our post-intervention evaluation of the curriculum with teachers and principals of all the intervention schools suggests that the intervention was successful and they were eager to include it as part of the primary-school curriculum.…”

Nutrition and health education intervention for student volunteers: topic-wise assessment of impact using a non-parametric test

“…Our knowledge intervention could not bring about significant ( P > 0·05) improvement on certain topics like HIV/AIDS, ELISA, malaria, DPT vaccine, hypertension, milk, and soya products and sprouts. One reason for this could be that the average score at baseline on these questions was already high, which some studies have attributed to other factors such as previous health education in their curriculum, earlier exposure to various media and the influence of parents, teachers and peer groups ( 12 , 22 ) .…”

“…Many before–after studies that assessed the impact of nutrition (and health education) on adolescents in India ( 11 , 12 ) have used at least two repeated measures of knowledge scores after the educational intervention to assess the improvement and retention in knowledge. In yet another study in a rural area of Andhra Pradesh, Bamji and Murthy have assessed the impact of nutrition education on knowledge and perceptions of school-going adolescents by only a single measure of knowledge score after the intervention ( 26 ) .…”

“…Developing appropriate communication strategies for providing nutrition and health education to the student volunteers to disseminate the nutrition knowledge to the community is the need of the hour. In many of the earlier studies, assessment of the impact of nutrition education (and/or health education) interventions was done using parametric approaches such as paired t tests and ANOVA ( 10 – 12 ) . By employing these tests one can only determine the overall impact on knowledge levels due to the education interventions used.…”